What is Radio Galaxy?

Black holes are found at the centre of most, if not all, galaxies. The bigger the galaxy, the bigger the black hole, and the more strong the effect it can have on the host galaxy. These supermassive black holes drag in nearby material, grow to billions of times the mass of our Sun and occasionally produce spectacular jets of material. Often, these jets cannot be detected by visible light, but can be seen using radio telescopes. Astronomers need your help to find these jets and match them to the galaxy that hosts them.

What do you do?

Using a slider, you can see infrared and radio images from galaxies. Your task is to find the galaxy plumes from the radio telescope and match them to infrared image of the galaxy. There are examples to help you out, and the discussion feature might even make you famous!

Relations with school topics

The science of astronomy, galaxies, infrared